Textbook Cost

The English 103 multimedia project video that I watched focused on the costliness of textbooks and argued that textbooks are too expensive. The video was done in a breaking news story format where the anchor presented the problem of the costliness of textbooks, interviewed people about their textbook expenses and did a follow up of one student to reinforce the idea that college textbooks cost too much. Finally the anchor presented the Patterson Act as one solution to the problem. The video was very effective in presenting the problem and convincing viewers that textbooks are overly expensive through their choice of format. Anytime there is any kind of breaking news, people tend to pay close attention, so formatting the video like this defiantly would catch viewers’ attention. Interviewing people on the cost of their textbooks helped strengthen their argument and would help convince viewers that textbooks are too expensive because everyone that they interviewed had a textbook cost around $1000 dollars. The fact that the reporter said things such as, “my gosh, I can’t believe this,” in response to numerous student’s textbook cost would help convince the audience as well. The follow up done of one student showed how excited she was initially to be at Clemson, how worried she was when she found out the cost of her textbooks, and finally how sad she was two years later when the cost of textbooks had nearly caused her to have to drop out of school. The emotions seen in this student would defiantly help in convincing viewers that textbooks are too expensive. The music and sound effects used in the video also helped strengthen the argument. The breaking news sound effect in the very beginning of the video catches viewers’ attention. After interviewing multiple students on the cost of their textbooks a list of the before mentioned prices appeared on the screen with an alarm sound, which obviously suggests the alarming cost of textbooks. After the reporter mentions the Patterson Act a description of it comes on the screen while John Mayor’s “Waiting On The World To Change” plays, which suggest that even more should be done to cut textbook cost. All these elements make for a very effective and convincing video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKcxLxV9-yo